IRAQ

The Arabic-language Palestinian al-Manar newspaper quoted an Iraqi source as saying that 250 to 300 Israeli soldiers are stationed at Taji military base, North of Baghdad, using American or Canadian passports to conceal their real identity.

Observers believe that the soldiers are indeed missioned to conduct terrorist operations and assassinate Iraqi figures>>>

(*and they're probably feeling a little cockey , with only 56 days left until Israel's most historic Independence Day since Biblical Times)

There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.

Just two months ahead of national elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi has moved to formalize the transition away from power independent Shi’ite militias operating as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and has issued a decree formally inducting all of the PMF into the Iraqi military.

This month marks the 15th anniversary of the US war on Iraq. The "shock and awe" attack was launched based on "stove-piped" intelligence fed from the CIA and Pentagon through an uncritical and compliant US mainstream media ... Because the neocons who helped launch the war have never had to face the consequences of their actions, they continue to promote war with impunity ... I find it disgusting that the media continues to give airtime almost exclusively to those who promote more US disasters like Iraq ... We had no business going into Iraq in the first place and we have no business remaining in Iraq. Al-Qaeda and ISIS emerged in Iraq because our attack and occupation of the country 15 years ago created fertile fields for extremism. Nothing will be achieved if we remain. Let's listen to the Iraqis and just come home!

More than seven times as many civilians have been killed by the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria than official numbers suggest, according to recent data from a leading monitor.

...

From the start of the intervention in August 2014 until mid-February this year, the coalition has killed between at least 6,137 and 9,444 civilians, according to Airwars, a UK-based monitoring group of experienced investigative journalists and researchers.

Hundreds of those were children, its figures show.

The numbers are in stark contrast to Operation Inherent Resolve’s own data, with its latest report, released on Friday, confirming at least 841 “unintentional” civilian deaths over the course of the campaign.

US President Donald Trump has reportedly scorched former President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq, calling it “worst decision ever made” and compared the war to throwing a “big fat brick” into hornet’s nest.

The remarks were made by Trump during a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday, CNN reported, claiming it obtained a recording of the event. Trump reportedly turned on Bush over his decision on to invade Iraq in 2003.

Addressing the Iraqi parliament’s call last week for a specific timeline for all foreign troops to withdraw from Iraq, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg there were no plans at present to leave Iraq, and that troops would stay “as long as necessary.”

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Iraq
Stoltenberg’s assessment wasn’t couched as defiance, however, nor did he take the US position that the deployment in permanent. Rather, he claimed NATO had gotten a written request from Iraqi PM Hayder Abadi to keep its troops in the country.

Details on this written request are unclear, and indeed its existence wasn’t even made public until now. It is likely that a similar request exists for US troops within Iraq as well, given how reliant on overseas deployments Abadi was during the ISIS fight.

Webmaster's Commentary:

IF such a letter exists, how come the Iraqi people and Parliament haven't been informed?!?

And have US officials also received such a letter from Iraqi PM Hayder Abadi?!?

Very curious, this, and very interesting timing, as the Iraqi elections are due to be held 12 May of this year, and Muqtada Al Sadr is putting together a list of candidates to run as Sadrists!!

Despite the lies we were constantly bombarded with, Iraq never presented a threat to the United States. Iraq never had the weapons of mass destruction that the neocons used to frighten Americans into supporting the war. How many of them knew all along that there were no WMDs? We’ll never know. Attacking Iraq and overthrowing its leader was long a plan in the neocon playbook and they used the 9/11 attack on the US as an excuse to pull the plan off the shelf and put it into action.

Iraq’s Parliament has approved a bill to demand a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from the country. MPs have assigned Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi by virtue of the same bill to take an appropriate measure in the same direction. This has revived a debate over American’s military presence in Iraq with some speculating that a clash between the leaders of the two countries over the same issue could be just around the corner.

Despite being overstretched by shortages of reliable equipment and thousands of vacant positions, the German military is reportedly planning to deploy troops to Iraq as part of a new mission to train security forces there.

German advisers are expected to mentor Iraqi soldiers, training them in explosive ordnance disposal, military logistics as well as field medicine, according to a 15-page parliamentary mandate accessed by broadcaster ARD. Germany will also help Iraq to build up “a transparent command-and-control structure” of its security forces.

Today, the analysts claiming close ties between Al Qaeda and Iran come from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which vehemently opposes the Iran nuclear deal and unabashedly calls for regime change in Iran.

It seems not to matter that 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis and none were Iranians. Or that, according to the United States intelligence community, of the groups listed as actively hostile to the United States, only one is loosely affiliated with Iran, and Hezbollah doesn’t make the cut. More than ever the Foundation for Defense of Democracies seems like the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans that pushed falsehoods in support of waging war with Iraq.

The Iraqi parliament has passed a resolution this week thanking the US and other friendly nations for their support in defeating ISIS, and also demanding that the Abadi government set a strict timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country.

Ruling coalition MP Husham al-Suhail insisted that parliament wasn’t trying to force any specific timeline on the deal, but wanted the government to make it clear, having declared victory, when the foreign troops would be gone.

That’s potentially going to be a problem though, because while the other nations are all making clear their presence is very temporary, the US has been very public from the start that this is a permanent deployment, and they don’t plan to ever leave.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I wonder just how long it will take for the guy who forced the US's hand in the original SOFA agreement between Iraq and the US to appear; where in the world is Moqtada Al Sadr these days?!?

Remember him?!? He was in charge of the Mahdi Army in Iraq, and was virulently anti-American. He stated that if the US violated the SOFA agreement by staying one day longer than stated in the document, our military would be sitting ducks for his Mahdi Army.

So they got out of Iraq - for the moment... before Isis came in, and the US military went back into Iraq.

Well, let me get back to Moqtada; he has been a busy guy, that's for sure. As reported at the Baghdad Post, January 18, 2018:

"Istiqlal Party, affiliated with the Sadrist Movement, revealed on Thursday details of the coalition it has formed for the coming elections.

Member of the party's secretariat general Mohammed Rashk said that the party is aligning itself with the blocs that adopt the same platform based on rebuilding the institutions of the state and enforcing comprehensive reforms.

He added the coalition will be named "Those Marching Towards Reform".

Should Al Sadr's coalition win this election (and he is still wildly popular in Iraq) it would be an absolute game changer for Iraq; Israel; and the US government.

The Iraqi parliament has passed a resolution this week thanking the US and other friendly nations for their support in defeating ISIS, and also demanding that the Abadi government set a strict timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country.

In recent history, from the Vietnam war to the present, the month of March has been chosen by Pentagon and NATO military planners as the “best month” to go to war.

With the exception of the War on Afghanistan (October 2001) and the 1990-91 Gulf War, all major US-NATO and allied led military operations over a period of more than half a century –since the invasion of Vietnam by US ground forces on March 8, 1965– have been initiated in the month of March.

The Ides of March (Idus Martiae) is a day in the Roman calendar which broadly corresponds to March 15. The Ides of March is also known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.

Lest we forget, the month of March (in the Roman Calendar) is dedicated to Mars (Martius), the Roman God of War.

For the Romans, the month of March (Martius) marked “the time to start new military campaigns.”

A??ording to the Turkish newspaper Yeni Akit, the United States has deployed 600 troops in the international coalition’s base in At-Tanf in Syria, adjacent to the Iraqi border.

The military contingent, comprised of special forces soldiers, has arrived at the base in At-Tanf, which was established by the US two years ago, in early 2016. A report from another Turkish media outlet Milliyet, citing the website Palmyra Monitor in Arabic, suggests that the units reached the base with armored vehicles.

As Americans continue to rage over the Valentine’s Day school shooting in Florida, expressing indignation at both the atrocity and efforts to impose (or reject) gun control, the U.S. government has acknowledged its own perpetual addiction to violence.

According to two letters released by the federal government last week in response to an inquiry from Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the U.S. plans to maintain its military presence in Syria and Iraq indefinitely, citing vague threats of terrorism.

In one letter, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) David Trachtenberg responded to Kaine by justifying continued operations in Syria with the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed by Congress in the wake of 9/11 to justify invading Afghanistan.

Webmaster's Commentary:

An "indefinte" US military presence in Syria?!?

Forgive me, but has either Syria's Al-Assad or Russia's Putin received a copy of this memo?!?

Remember; Russia was invited by the Syrian government to assist with getting rid of the Western-backed jihadists; the US absolutely was not.

The US military actions in Syria and Iraq are absolutely not about "self-defense", except in the pure economic sense; these actions are about ultimately, regime change in Damascus, making Syria more Western-Centric, and in both countries, assuring that the oil from these countries is only sold in US dollars; it is just that simple.

This virtually guarantees a military confrontation between Russia and the United States in Syria. I think that the question of how much of this nonsense Syria and Russia will take from the United States will be answered relatively shortly.

Unfortunately, it appears that US foreign policy, under the Trump administration, has devolved to the "OR ELSE!!!" school of foreign policy, which counts only on threats, and pre-emptive wars with which to secure what the US government wants to accomplish, rather than even attempt to make deals which would accomplish the same outcomes.
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This country was founded on a brilliant concept of responsible, representative government, serving the needs and hopes of its citizens; that country has died, and been replaced by a government which only represents the needs and concerns of major corporations, and their desire to acquire, no matter how many innocents get crushed in the way of those acquisitions.

Wars are fought for corporate profit, not for any great noble ideal; not for truth; not for justice; and not to allegedly protect the "American Way of Life", whatever that is supposed to be.

When Karl Marx observed that "All wars are economic in origin.", he was being ruthlessly honest, which is why so many US politicians hate this reality; after all, it thoroughly interferes with the US Deep State narrative that its wars are always just; honest; and moral, which we now know to be a complete and utter lie.

Iraq has initiated the purchase of the S-400 missile system to protect its land and sky from threats, said the head of the committee on defense and security of the Iraqi parliament Hakim al-Zamili.

He noted that the country has many sacred sites for every Iraqi, and there are signs that terrorists can attack these shrines with the help of aircraft. In this regard, the deputy recalled the attacks on Samarra, where there is a number of Shiite shrines, including the Al-Askariya Mosque built in 944. It is considered one of the centers of Shiite religious pilgrimage.

"Therefore, Iraq is compelled to possess such complexes, and it is our right to receive them," Az-Zamili said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has the legal authority to keep U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria indefinitely, Pentagon and State Department officials said in a pair of letters released this week.

The letters detail the Trump administration’s plan for an open-ended mission for U.S. forces, beyond the fight against the Islamic State group. The letters — first reported by The New York Times — were to Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine, an advocate for a replacement for the post-9/11 war authorizations for the use of military force.

The letters come amid various efforts from congressional Republicans and Democrats to have Congress approve a new authorization, or AUMF. Kaine and other critics argue the White House’s use of authorizations from a decade and half ago is a legal stretch. He called on Trump to seek a new authorization.

Webmaster's Commentary:

In point of fact, Trump does not have that legal authority. There has been no official declaration of war by the US Congress against either Iraq or Syria and no no UN Security Council resolution against Syria. The original Bush AUMF was based on a fraud (weapons of mass destruction) and because fraud negates consent, that AUMF is null and void.

The United States has warned Iraq, among a number of other countries, of the consequences of extending military cooperation with Russia, and striking deals to purchase advanced weaponry, particularly the S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Neuert said on Thursday that Washington has contacted many countries, including Iraq, to explain the significance of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), and possible consequences that would arise in the wake of defense agreements with Moscow.

On August 2, 2017, US President Donald Trump signed into law the CAATSA that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

New letters from the State and Defense Departments lay out the case, such as it is. The arguments in both letters are very similar. The 2002 AUMF for Iraq doesn’t have any caveats. It just says Iraq is a threat, and that means the US can do whatever they want to, with, or in Iraq. Syria, where the US is not only not invited, but troops are said to be there to advance regime change, is a lot trickier.

The argument is that because ISIS still sort of exists, the US can keep troops in Syria just in case ISIS becomes a serious threat, and while there, any time Syria forces get kind of close, the US can attack them “in self-defense.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

President Trump has proven himself a far cry from Candidate Trump, who suggested that these endless, immoral, extraconstitutional confrontations should be ended, and gave us hope that the War Party was losing its influence in the Bowels of Power in DC.

Not so; and now President Trump is doubling down in Afghanistan as well:

A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought against CACI Premier Technology for its alleged involvement in Iraqi torture at the Abu Ghraib prison.

“CACI personnel substantially aided the military personnel responsible for directly carrying out the abuses, including directing them on how to set the conditions of confinement, ordering them to employ various abusive tactics, and helping them conceal the abuses,” Judge Leonie Brinkema stated [PDF].

“Moreover, upper-level management at CACI substantially aided these continued abuses by refusing to inform the military of reports that CACI and military personnel were abusing detainees and by continuing to employ—and even promote—interrogators engaging in the abuses.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

Good on Judge Brinkema!!

Torture is counterproductive, in terms of creating actionable intelligence, and should be shunned by all civilized societies.

Although looking at the sorry state of the Unhinged Survielled States of America today, "civilized" would not be the first adjective I would use to describe it.

Canadians should prepare themselves for an onslaught of feel-good propaganda in the coming weeks as the world marks the 15th anniversary of one of the most horrific war crimes of the 21st century, the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq by forces including the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

It will be disheartening to watch as liberal commentators from the Toronto Star and CBC engage in the most dishonest kind of smug, self-satisfied flag saluting, praising then-Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien for allegedly “declining” to sign on to the war. Yet the notion that Canada somehow decided not to be part of the Shock and Awe invasion of Iraq is a complete falsehood, and is well-documented elsewhere .

THE US and UK did Iran a “favour” and achieved the Islamic Republic’s aims of taking out Saddam Hussein while “sacrificing their own troops” in the process, according to an Iranian Foreign Minister in an explosive documentary.

The ministers said yes to the creation of military Schengen to ease forces movements across the Old Continent. NATO is to do away with the cumbersome and lingering bureaucratic procedures hindering transportation of troops and hardware through territories of member states. One of the solutions is a standardized form used by European allies and partner states for granting permission for movements. Germany has offered to host the command center to implement the concept of free transit zone in view of its vast experience in providing logistical support.

The decision is taken amid burgeoning preparations to boost military infrastructure near Russia’s borders.

To augment the forces in East Europe, the Black Sea, the Baltics and the Scandinavian Peninsula the bloc needs new logistic hubs. Unobstructed large-scale transport movements become top priority for implementation of the war plans, such as concentrating combat-ready stocks for a full US brigade in Poland.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Translation: get ready for the great number of wars the US government and NATO are planning.

Direct energy weapons are electromagnetic signals used for lethal or nonlethal purpose. One such example of use is creating pain in a target but the other nefarious usage is beaming voices into a target's head to either coerce someone into doing a violent act or to drive them insane.

Yes, this type of technology has existed and has been being worked on since as early as the 1950's-60's during MKUltra.

NATO’s secretary-general on Tuesday gave his backing for a bigger train-and-advise mission in Iraq after three years of war with Islamic State, heeding a call from U.S. President Donald Trump for the alliance to do more against the militants.

Iraq is looking to attract US$100 billion worth of foreign investment that would help it rebuild its oil refining and petrochemicals sectors and reconstruct crucial infrastructure after it repelled Islamic State out of its territory following a three-year war against the militants.

In December last year, Iraq declared the war with ISIS over and is now seeking foreign investments in major projects that would help it to revive its economy, which has also been hurt by low oil prices.

Ahead of a conference on Iraq’s reconstruction that will be held in Kuwait next week, Iraq’s National Investment Commission published a list of major strategic projects available for investment, with 157 different opportunities up for grabs.

A total of 18 investment opportunities are up on offer in the chemicals, petrochemicals, fertilizers, and refinery sectors.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I just have to wonder how the US government will react when Russia, China,, and Iran reach out to Iraq to offer deals for these investment projects; and right now, the US government is impotent to prevent these from going through! :-)

Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, helped the then-secretary “paint a clear picture that war was the only choice” in his infamous 2003 speech to the U.N. This week, writing for the New York Times — an outlet that, at the time, parroted misleading narratives in support of the war — Wilkerson accused the Trump administration of manipulating evidence and fear-mongering in the same way the Bush administration did to cultivate public support for ousting Saddam Hussein.

In his Monday op-ed, titled “ I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again,” he wrote:

Nine Abrams tanks the United States had provided to Iraqi forces for the battle against the Islamic State (IS) are now in the hands of the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias, a US military audit confirmed.

A quarterly inspector general report for the US mission in Iraq and Syria, released on Feb. 2, confirms that M1 Abrams battle tanks and other lethal equipment provided to the Iraqi government by Washington have ended up with the Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

“The US Department of State acknowledged that some US-provided military equipment sent to support the mission, including as many as nine M1 Abrams tanks, had fallen into the hands of Iranian-backed militias that fought against [IS] in Iraq,” the report read.

The report added that the Department of State pressed the Iraqi government to prioritize the return of defense articles provided by the US as designated in the sale agreements.

Sydney Dec 2016, My self and Maram S. (Syrian girl) gave a talk about the ongoing wars that led up to the current conflict in Syria. Originally I was invited by Western Sydney University. Things happened. We ended up having it at the Palestinian Cultural center instead. This is part one of 3 parts. You can get this entire talk with no watermark through patreon here https://www.patreon.com/posts/8070906 this will also give you access to other goodies

Iraqi security services on Sunday published the names of 60 people wanted on suspicion of belonging to Daesh, Al-Qaeda or the Baath Party of late dictator Saddam Hussein.

The list, seen by AFP, includes the name of Saddam's daughter Raghad, who lives in Jordan.

It also features 28 suspected Daesh terrorists, 12 from Al-Qaeda and 20 Baathists, giving details of the roles they allegedly play in their organisations, crimes of which they are suspected and in most cases, photographs.

All are Iraqis apart from Maan Bashour, a Lebanese man accused of recruiting fellow citizens to fight in Iraq.

"It's an old story that dates back to the American invasion of Iraq when we were partisans of the Iraqi resistance," Bashour told AFP. "Yes, we carried out activities against the American occupation.">>>

SOT, Ayatollah Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran (Farsi): "Be aware, the hands that created Daesh [ISIS], either in Iraq or Syria, and committed all of those crimes through Daesh, using Daesh as a means to carry out attacks against entire populations, are the same hands that are now transferring Daesh to Afghanistan," he said. "They were defeated, previously, in Iraq and Syria. Now, they seek to ignite terror all over again in Afghanistan. It was only during the onset that they killed so many people, over the last month or approximately forty days," he warned. "They want to start the chaos here again and this is the start. From one month or forty days ago onward, they have committed a massacre over there," he explained. He then explained how the US destabilizes the region to protect Israel. "What’s important, for the US, is to cause continuous unrest in our region.

Russians need to stop the Turks before this all turns into a major and protracted conflict.

Did Trump and his generals really think that Turkey, Iran, Syria and Russia would accept a US protectorate in Syria masquerading as an “independent Kurdistan” and do nothing about it? Yet again, and I know this sounds hard to believe, but I think that this is yet another strong indication that the Empire is run by stupid and ignorant people whose brain and education simply do not allow them to grasp even the basic dynamics in the region of our planet they are interfering with.

Whatever may be the case the Turks reacted exactly as everybody thought:

The Iraqi volunteer forces of Hashd al-Shaabi announced on Saturday that its forces are on alert to carry out anti-terrorism operations on Syrian soil following coordination with Damascus officials. Vice-Chairman of the Hashd al-Shaabi Committee Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes announced that his forces have been put on alert to chase terrorists in Syria if the militants in Syria launch attacks on Iraq. He further said that Hashd al-Shaabi missions in Syria should be allowed and declared by the country's Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi and in coordination with the Damascus government. An Arabic-language media reported last week that the Iraqi sources disclosed dispatch of forces and equipment to the border with Syria after the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdraw from the region in a surprising move.

One week into the Turkish invasion of Syria’s Afrin District, the war against the Kurdish YPG looks to be expanding precipitously, with President Erdogan first announcing he’d extend the war to Manbij, and now all the way east to the Iraqi border.

This suggests Turkey’s war against Syria’s Kurds is likely to span the whole of YPG territory, which at present is about 25% of all of Syria. That war will include Turkey’s allies, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which Turkey tends to install as de facto rulers in places they’ve seized.

More importantly, this escalation all but ensures Turkey will be in an military confrontation with the US, as all of America’s troops deployed in Syria are in YPG territory, embedded with the Kurds, who they consider allies.

Webmaster's Commentary:

But what if there is no "grand understanding:" between Turkey,Syria, the Kurds, Iraq, and Russia?!?!

And the other question, still unanswered, is how much military "monkey business" will Russia, which was invited to Syria at the behest of the Syrian government, allow to happen before it intervenes, and hard, militarily?!?

Is the US goal in Syria, in terms of having US troops in the country illegally, to pick a fight with Russia,and have that become the "justification" for a war against Russia, which, unfortunately, US troops might well not be able to win?!?

And I posit that question as someone who is a Christian pacifist activist, who very deeply cares about her country, and is deeply disturbed by various policy trajectories the US government is taking, both foreign and domestic.

We have reached a point in time where the US government believes that the only answer to any geopolitical dispute has to be war, and has completely forgotten the high art of good will/win/win, moral... negotiations.

Here are the cold hard facts; Russia consripts; the US does not. Our troops are intensely overstretched. The Russians have weaponry which has proven field tested and combat ready; the US presents badly engineered products,like the F-35. And the US doesn't have the manufacturing capacity (we've offshored it/outsourced that), nor the money to insure a positive outcome of a war against Russia.

A number of Iraqi army forces were killed and several more were wounded in an assault by a US military helicopter West of the town of al-Ramadi in Anbar province, an Iraqi media outlet reported on Saturday. The Arabic-language Sumeriyeh news reported that the US chopper targeted al-Baghdadi region West of al-Ramadi in Anbar province, killing seven and wounding 11 others, including several Iraqi servicemen. In the meantime, al-Mayadeen reported that 8 people, including an intelligence officers of al-Baghdadi center and 5 security forces, were killed and 20 more were injured in the US chopper attack. A high-ranking Iraqi security official said earlier this month that the government troops, supported by allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, succeeded to purge more than half of the desert areas in the country’s Western province of Anbar of ISIL.

Censorship of news is never a good thing. It might suit media corporations worried about their business model, falling circulation and losing advertising dollars, or maybe they worry about government directives and what they can and cannot say, but censorship is never a good thing. The new labels ‘fake news’, ‘post truth era’ which Facebook has taken up as its cause must be balanced against the fact that Facebook is a tech company, not run by journalists, not governed by journalistic ethics. So who is minding them?

The Chilcot inquiry looked into a number of questions arising from the inaccurate reporting of the Iraq war, the ‘failure of intelligence’ or as some might say, the lies Western governments told about WMDs that didn’t exist and the role of the media in uncritically defending the pretext for war on Iraq...

While the Baghdad government last month declared victory over Islamic State after wresting back almost all the territory IS seized in 2014, persistent bombing and shooting attacks make it difficult to rebuild the lives of displaced people, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency.

“We believe that as a result of the conflict, a lack of investment over the years, and the poverty ... that there are 4 million children now in need across Iraq,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF chief representative in the country.

He told a Geneva news briefing by telephone from Baghdad that 1.3 million of the 2.6 million displaced by the often devastating fighting with Islamic State were children.

“While the fighting has come to an end in several areas, spikes of violence continue in others - just this week, three bombings went off in Baghdad,” UNICEF Regional Director Geert Cappelaere said in a statement.

Webmaster's Commentary:

When you destroy a country's children, you destroy that country's future.

UK-based NGO Airwars has offered a reckoning of the 2017 air operations of the US-led coalition against ISIS, involving attacks in both Iraq and Syria.The number of civilians killed increased dramatically, with estimates suggesting that they roughly tripled from 2016.

In 2016, they documented an estimated death toll of between 1,243 and 1,904 non-combatants, but in 2017, the estimate was a minimum of 3,923, and potentially as many as 6,102 non-combatants killed.

That’s a huge increase, and a troubling one, in no small part because the US doesn’t admit it’s even happening, with Pentagon assessments putting deaths at no more than a few hundred annually, and around 800 over the entire past four years.

Webmaster's Commentary:

And it gets worse, folks: here's a story from alternet.com, to which we should all be paying attention:

"The Trump administration will soon announce its next move in the ongoing assault on diplomacy and human rights currently taking place in the United States. Through a plan dubbed “Buy American,” the administration is calling for U.S. attachés and diplomats to play a larger role in the sale of U.S. weapons, effectively solidifying their role as lobbyists for the arms industry rather than agents of diplomacy.

This means the State Department, the agency that is meant to foster diplomatic relations and maintain peaceful engagement with other countries, will now openly operate as a weapons dealer. The administration is essentially forcing the State Department to undermine itself, as seeking out and expanding opportunities for increased weapons sales are certainly not conducive to fostering peaceful global relations."

If EVER this country needed a "Department of Peace", to figure out non-martial, non-military alternatives to this country's never-ending geopolitical conflicts, it is right the hell now!

The Turkish military has launched a land operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, stating that its aim is to “prevent PKK militants from threatening border security.”

The operation is the first time in nine years that Turkish land forces have engaged in Iraq.

Commando units entered the Zap region of Iraq after crossing from the Çukurca district of the southeastern province of Hakkari. The move, which is part of “Operation Zap,” came after the military determined an increase in movement of outlawed militants in the area, Do?an News Agency reported on Oct. 18.

A total of 21 PKK militants have been “neutralized” since the air-supported operations began on Oct. 16, according to statements made by the military. Authorities use the word “neutralized” to refer to militants who are killed, wounded or captured.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Even though this happened last Sunday, and one might think that this is at least some kind of "big deal", not a word in the western media about Turkey launching a ground invasion of Iraq.

After 15 years of repudiating claims that the invasion of Iraq was only initiated to seize Iraqi resources, large oil corporations fronted by former architects of the war who vacated to the private sector are flagrantly advertising their contracts for exploration and production of Iraqi oil fields to potential investors.

The British oil and gas company BP won the contract to operate the Rumaila Oil Field back in 2009, and now proudly boast of its new drilling capabilities on Twitter. Rumaila is simply huge; by some measures it is the third largest reserve of crude oil on the planet, and is currently extracting 100 million dollars worth of oil every day – enough to cover the annual health budget of Iraq under the wartime rule of the US coalition every five days.

Webmaster's Commentary:

So now, it can be honestly shouted from the rooftops; one of the biggest winners in the war against Iraq is... BRITISH PETROLEUM!!

Funny; I don't remember the Butchers of Baghdad (that unholy triumverate of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld) saying anything about the ultimate winners of the Iraq war being the large petroleum companies who would profit by a takeover of the Iraqi oil fields, or how the US would benefit from that oil only being sold in US dollars.

To the young men and women who enlisted shortly after 9/11, and thought that a war against Iraq would be the perfect revenge; you were decieved with every piece of nationalistic codswallop the US government threw at you, and you swallowed all of them whole.

This war was not about honor, courage, or preserving and defending "the American way of life", whatever that is supposed to be; it was about the money to be made from Iraq's oil reserves, and the reality that the oil would only be sold in US dollars.

Of course, the US warmongering politicians, who benefit greatly from their relationships with America's military/industrial complex, attending memorials for one of our fallen, can never tell the truth as to why this war was initiated in the first place; so they simply reguritate the lies which stand as "cover" for the ugly truth that all wars, including the Iraq war, are truly economic in their origin.

At this moment in time, we stand on a precipice of yet another world war, most likely to be initiated by the American Deep State.

To those young people of draft age, if in fact you have dual citizenship in a country not on the US's invasion route (somewhere maybe like Switzerland, Australia, or Monaco) perhaps heading to those places, and hunkering down there, might not be a bad idea at the moment. And I say that because were I a betting person, I would not bet against the draft being reinstituted in this country, and relatively quickly.

The US government understands that the economy in this country is about to crash, so it desperately needs a war, regional or world-wide, to deflect American attention from the real economic mess into which it has placed all but the most elite, and most monied.

The potential scenarios for conflict are everywhere, and I will mention the most obvious here.

1. The US military is establishing a 30,000 troop strong "buffer zone" for the Kurds in Syria. The Syrian and Russian government are screaming at the US to stand down... or else. And this gets complicated because Turkey's Edrogan has threatened, and appears to be readying, an invasion Syria, to prevent that from happening. So you have NATO allies, potentially the US and Turkey, at each other's throats, militarily.

The longer the US stays inside Syria, the more likely a hot conflict with Russia over this illegal invasion of Syria by the US military.

2. North Korea/China. Even though North and South Korea appear to be making splendid progress in recent negotiations toward peace, expect the US to scupper what it can, in terms of creating a war between North Korea, China, and the US. Statements as recently as yesterday, indicate that the US government is terrified of peace breaking out here, with President Trump making the observation that it is possible that these negotiations will not lead to a denuclearization of the North Korean Penninsula, and Tillerson's observation that the US will not honor the "freeze for freeze" concept, presented by Russia and China.

3. Russia/Iran. I have already mentioned the possibility of war over Syria between Russia and the United States, but there are many other potential flashpoints, Ukraine being a very likely scenario. But should the US/Saudi Arabia/Israel attack Tehran, in order to bring regime change there, it should reasonably expect Russia to defend Iran militarily. And we have seen, in Syria, that Russia does have military hardware which works spectacularly well, and countries around the world have been making a beeline to Moscow to acquire these weapons.

4. China/India: there are still massive geopolitical problems here, and both countries are nuclear armed. In a conflict between China and India, the US government has thrown its hat in the ring with India, with an enhanced "security agreement" put into effect by the Obama administration.

5. India/Pakistan: Again, both countries are nuclear armed, and have been threatening each other with nuclear war. Recently, the US government withdrew financial aid to Pakistan. And, as mentioned in an earlier post today, India just tested a nuclear-capable missile, the "jewel in the crown", if you will, of their ICBMs.

So please remember, when the propaganda starts getting spread hard and thick by the presstitutes, as a "justification" for war, any war, please remember; wars are about the rich (and the bankers) getting richer, and the "grunts" being completely expendable, through death or massive injury, after having done what they were tasked to do. All wars are mass murders toward those ends, period, end of discussion, wrapped in a pretty, cheap little flag.

And "patriotism" is the pathological disability to see beyond the propaganda, and to deconstruct the real agendas of war, which are always engineered to bring more money and profits for the already monied and profitable.

The editor of a prominent Jewish community newspaper has come under strong attack for making a joke about a war in which more than a million Iranians and Iraqis lost their lives.

Stephen Pollard, editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, now stands accused of inciting hatred and bigotry following a tweet in which the staunchly pro-Israel and equally enthusiastic Tottenham Hotspur fan compared the Premier League game between Chelsea and Arsenal yesterday to the war between Iran and Iraq because he wanted both sides to lose.

Neocon architect David Frum, a man who spearheaded the Iraq WMD war, a man who has never gotten anything right on geo-politics, but has used mainstream media to push his war hawk agenda, (much to the detriment of America and the world), is now on CNN telling viewers to trust mainstream media because they make so many mistakes and lie so much.

The president promised to deliver peace. But in his first year, he expanded every war he inherited.

President Trump has maintained or expanded the wars that he inherited from his predecessor.

As Jennifer Wilson and I pointed out in an appropriately titled column in August, “Donald Trump Is Dropping Bombs at Unprecedented Levels.” Within eight months of assuming office, Trump — with the announcement of six “precision aistrikes” in Libya — had bombed every country that former President Barack Obama had in eight years. One month after that, the United States surpassed the 26,172 bombs that had been dropped in 2016. Through the end of December 2017, Trump had authorized more airstrikes in Somalia in one year (33), than George W. Bush and Obama had since the United States first began intervening there in early 2007 (30).

Declarations of victory over ISIS by both Iraq and Syria, along with Russia, are not having an impact on US military policy in the region, according to Defense Secretary James Mattis, who insisted on Friday that “the war is not over.”

Which isn’t to say that the US is determined to keep fighting a war against ISIS, as such, but rather that there’s definitely going to be a war against somebody in those countries. Mattis in particular has been keen to talk up the idea of an “ISIS 2.0” emerging in areas ISIS has been expelled from.

According to a new Reuters report, the chief of the Russian General Staff has accused the United States of hosting a training facility for ISIS fighters in Syria along the Syria-Iraq border. Al-Tanf base on Syria's southeast side has been under the control of the US-backed "New Syrian Army" and their US special forces advisers since the area was captured from ISIS in August of 2016.

Russia has previously called the base a 100km wide “black hole” operated by the US wherein an assortment of unaccountable armed groups and militants can operate freely. That American troops have long been deployed there was previously confirmed through multiple photographs and videos released early in the summer of 2017 which showed US elite soldiers on active patrols with Syrian rebel factions associated with the Free Syrian Army (or FSA, elements of which were more recently renamed the New Syrian Army).

Fewer than 1,000 Daesh (ISIS) fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, the United States-led international coalition fighting the hardline Sunni militant group said Wednesday, a third of the estimated figure only three weeks ago.

Iraq and Syria have both declared victory over Daesh in recent weeks, after a year that saw the two countries' armies, a range of foreign allies and various local forces drive the fighters out of all the towns and villages that once made up their self-proclaimed caliphate.

A new study shows that U.S. government weapons ended up in the hands of Islamic State jihadists, but no one in Washington seems interested in how they got there or what President Obama knew, writes Daniel Lazare.

Syrian government forces have continued to develop momentum in southern Idlib and liberated Tal Afghar from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda).

Previously, government troops established control over Ruwaydah, Tall Khinzir, Zafaria, Shutaib and other points in the area.
According to local sources, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is now regrouping its forces and preparing to attack government forces in southern Idlib and southern Aleppo.

Iranian-backed forces are deploying reinforcements to the cities of al-Qaim and al-Bukamal in the Syrian-Iraqi border area, according to pro-government sources.

Experts link the growing activity of the Iranian-backed forces with the recently opened land route that links Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. The Al-Bukamal-Deir Ezzor part of the road is its most vulnerable segment because it borders with the ISIS-held part of the Homs-Deir Ezzor desert.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the United States is turning a blind eye to information provided by Moscow about Syrian terrorists traveling to neighboring Iraq in the hope that these militants could be later used to fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Putin made the remarks at the traditional end-of-year press conference in the Russian capital of Moscow on Thursday, saying that the Kremlin has received no “reaction” from Washington regarding the given intelligence.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that Iraqi forces had driven the last remnants of Daesh (ISIS) from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq's territory.

''This decision is condemned and decried, it hurt the feelings of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims,'' said a statement from Sistani's office.

''But it won't change the reality that al-Quds is an occupied land which should return to the sovereignty of its Palestinian owners no matter how long it takes,'' it said, calling on the ''Umma'', or Islamic nation, ''to combine its efforts that purpose.''

In a well choreographed Sochi summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin defines a peaceful future for Syria after the liberation of the country from militants

The main take away of the trilateral, two hour-long Russia-Iran-Turkey summit in Sochi on the future of Syria was expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“The presidents of Iran and Turkey supported the initiative to convene an All-Syrian Congress for national dialogue in Syria. We agreed to hold this important event at the proper level and ensure the participation of representatives of different sectors of Syrian society.”

A lot of countries in the Middle East want the same thing – economic progress, peace for their people.

Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser on Middle East peace, said Sunday that Israel needs to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians before it can form an alliance with the greater Arab world.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Friday that Lebanon had been “hijacked” by Hezbollah and could only flourish if the Iranian-backed group disarmed.

The Shi‘ite Muslim militia was set up by the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in the 1980s and has grown steadily in influence, sharing power in the Beirut government and giving crucial support to President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.

Its growing strength has alarmed Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim monarchy that is Shi‘ite Iran’s arch-rival for regional influence.

“Lebanon will only survive or prosper if you disarm Hezbollah,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a conference in Italy. “As long as you have an armed militia, you will not have peace in Lebanon.”

Jubeir said the situation in Lebanon was “tragic” and accused Iran of fomenting unrest across the Middle East.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Saudi Prime Minister Jubeir, a word please; how is your country's genocide against Yemen NOT "fomenting unrest across the Middle East"?!?

You have what we Americans colloquially describe " the Horse Sense" to understand that should Hezbullah disarm, it makes Lebanon suseptible to a hostile takeover by either your country, or Israel.

The Lebanese people understand this, and see Hezbollah as a force for good; I doubt that they will disarm any time soon.

The commander of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, declined to receive and read a letter sent by CIA Director Mike Pompeo when he was in al-Boukamal, a border area between Syria and Iraq which was liberated by the Syrian regime this month, chief of staff of Iran’s Supreme Leader claimed on Thursday.

Mohamadi Gulpaigani said that the American official sent the letter to Soleimani, from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), through an intermediary.

He did not mention the time of the alleged incident, but said it happened “recently,” Fars News Agency, close to the IRGC reported.

“The head of the CIA through one of its intermediaries in the region sent a letter to General Soleimani, but he [Sleimani] responded: I will not accept your letter, nor will I read it. I have nothing to do with these people,'” Gulpaigani quoted the Iranian commander as saying.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Most likely, Pompeo's letter was an informal "cease and desist" order, with regard to Iranian assistance to the Syrian government against the jihadis; but not knowing the "or else" time constraints the Iranian military may have been given in this letter, may well work to their disadvantage in Syria.

At least 800 civilians have been killed by US-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014, a coalition report says. It adds that the group holds itself accountable for “unintentional injury or death to civilians.”

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Hadi al-Ameri, who heads Iraq’s Badr Organization, said the popular forces would call on the parliament to draw up legislation to demand the US pull out all its troops from the Arab country.

“We will adopt a parliamentary decision to pull out all American troops”, who were allegedly fighting Isis terrorists in the conflict-stricken Arab country, he said.

Ameri said the popular forces won’t allow even “one US soldier” to remain in Iraq now that the Takfiri terrorists have lost their major bastions in the Arab state in the face of successful Iraqi army operations.

Thomas [Tom] Friedman, the supposedly liberal columnist of the New York Times and the "imperial messenger" of the US establishment, needs no introduction.

This is the same man who was the leading cheerleader for the illegal and criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003 that set the Middle East on the path of bloodshed and destruction. This is the same man who called the invasion of Iraq "the most radical-liberal revolutionary war the US has ever launched." The is the same pundit who, about a month after George W. Bush declared "mission accomplished" – and the mission, destruction of Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, has indeed been accomplished – stated in an interview with Charlie Rose about that war,

Webmaster's Commentary:

Friedman is a presstitute and warmonger of the most despicabler order, which is why he should be ignored, and become irrelevant to any future discussion of American foreign policy.

It therefore is completely logical that he should defend Saudi Prince Salman, the Butcher of Yemen, in his genocide against that country; that is what he is paid to do, defend the indefensible, in order to line the pockets of the Merchants of Death which own him and the NYT.

The Americans have finished with the Kurds, now they can pack up and go. This is what happened in Iraqi Kurdistan, and in Syrian Kurdistan the same situation will be repeated, says award-winning Iraqi Kurdish journalist Hiwa Osman.

US President Donald Trump has apparently promised he will “not provide weapons to the YPG [People’s Protection Units],” according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was present during the phone call between the US president and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The US forces were backing up the ISIL terrorist group with intelligence during the Syrian Army troops' operation to liberate the town of Albu Kamal in Southeastern Deir Ezzur, Secretary-General of Iraq's al-Nujaba Resistance Movement Sheikh Akram al-Ka'abi said on Sunday.

The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network quoted Sheikh al-Ka'abi as saying that the US forces tried hard to push the Syrian army's operation in Albu Kamal towards failure, adding that the US forces were targeting the pro-government resistance forces before Albu Kamal battle in order to slow down their advances.

He further added that the resistance forces, however, foiled the US plot.

Iraqi forces launched an operation on Thursday to clear the desert bordering Syria of Islamic State in a final push to rid Iraq of the militant group, the military said.

Troops from the Iraqi army and mainly Shi‘ite paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were taking part in the campaign against militants hiding in a large strip of border land, Iraqi military officials said.

“The objective behind the operation is to prevent remaining Daesh groups from melting into the desert region and using it as a base for future attacks,” said army colonel Salah Kareem, referring to Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.

Americans have been living in a country that has not known peace since 9/11, when President George W. Bush and his posse of neoconservatives delivered the message to the world that “you are either with us or against us.” The threat was coupled with flurry of hastily conceived legislation that opened the door to the unconstitutional “war on terror” carried out at the whim of the Chief Executive, a conflict which was from the start conceived of as a global military engagement without end.

In a bid to reduce gas flaring and pay off outstanding reparations for the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq has hired Japanese firm Toyo Engineering to help it build a gas pipeline to Kuwait, in what could be a blow to Shell’s gas ambitions in Iraq, industry sources tell Reuters.

Kuwait is looking to diversify its gas imports from Qatar after several Arab states led by Saudi Arabia severed ties with Qatar earlier this year accusing it of sponsoring terrorism.

Iraq has gas reserves, and it extracts large volumes of gas together with the oil, but the gas is currently being flared.

The Pentagon isn’t always honest about troop levels overseas, but their quarterly reports have shown a precipitous rise in ground troop deployments across the Middle East since June. Perhaps most interestingly, these deployments came entirely after the announced escalations in Iraq and Syria had already taken place.

US troop levels are up some 33% across the 14 nations included in the report, and rose in every single one of those countries. This spans a region covering all nations from Turkey to Egypt, down to Yemen, and over to Iraq and Kuwait.

The largest deployments are some of the most surprising, with the US presence in Qatar more than double over the past report (3,164 to 6,671), and nearly tripled in the United Arab Emirates (1,531 to 4,240). It is particularly noteworthy that troops continued to be added to nations in which seemingly nothing is happening, like Oman and Lebanon, suggesting the US is determined to just escalate everywhere at all times.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Escalations like this don't happen for utterly no reason: logistics like this take time, and planning.

I would suggest that this bump in troop strength in the Middle East may well b may well be a pre-positioning of resources in advance of an attack against Iran, possibly tag teaming with both Israel and Saudi Arabia.

This could get very nasty, very quickly, as Russian political and military leaders have consistently vowed to come to Iran's aid militarily, should it be attacked.

The deal to let IS fighters escape from Raqqa – de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate – had been arranged by local officials. It came after four months of fighting that left the city obliterated and almost devoid of people. It would spare lives and bring fighting to an end. The lives of the Arab, Kurdish and other fighters opposing IS would be spared.

Iraqi armed forces have liberated Rawa, the last remaining town under the grip of the Daesh terror group, hours after they launched the offensive.

Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement from the Joint Operations Command on Friday that Iraqi forces “liberated Rawa entirely, and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings.”

The force striking Rawa near the border with Syria comprised government troops and paramilitary units.

“With the liberation of Rawa, we can say all the areas in which Daesh is present have been liberated,” Reuters quoted a military spokesman as saying.

As the world now knows, Iraq had no dangerous "weapons of mass destruction," and posed no threat to the US. Moreover, alarmist suggestions that the Baghdad regime was working with the al-Qaeda terror network likewise proved to be without foundation.

So if the official reasons given for the war were untrue, why did the United States attack Iraq?

Whatever the secondary reasons for the war, the crucial factor in President Bush's decision to attack was to help Israel. With support from Israel and America's Jewish-Zionist lobby, and prodded by Jewish "neo-conservatives" holding high-level positions in his administration, President Bush - who was already fervently committed to Israel - resolved to invade and subdue one of Israel's chief regional enemies.

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The bill includes $634 billion for “core operations,” and $66 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). The OCO budget is notoriously used by the Pentagon to shift money around to various programs as officials see fit without having to ask Congress to fund them.

This massive bill is the culmination of months of officials trying to outspend one another, with President Trump proposing what he described as one of the biggest increases ever>>>

The United States is expected to spend nearly $6 trillion through 2018 on government-wide costs related to the wars waged in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria since 2001, reveals a study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

Families of the murdered youngsters silently exhibit photos of their sons and ask “international bodies to do something”. They all agree; the response from the “international community” has been shameful. Still, the Tikrit massacre committee vows to keep the memory of Speicher alive. Mothers of victims have been to Geneva to ask for help as well as mental health support for quite a few families, and plan to visit again in June 2018.

This has been one of Iraq’s most devastating nightmares of the past three decades. After such sorrow, what forgiveness?

Keep walking towards redemption

It’s possible. From agony to ecstasy. There could not be a more radical contrast between darkness and light than taking the road to Najaf – the Iraqi Vatican, and fourth holiest city in Islam – and Karbala, alongside millions of black-clad pilgrims during the annual celebration of Arba’een, the “40th Day” of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein.